Colorado Hail Storm Report, June 22, 2026: Measured 3-Inch Hail in Sterling, 4-Inch Stones Near Joes

June 22, 2026 was Colorado’s biggest hail day of the year. Trained spotters measured 3.00 inch hail on the west edge of Sterling and 2.50 inch hail on its south side, a spotter west of Joes measured multiple 4.00 inch stones that evening, and a separate complex dropped 2.00 to 2.25 inch hail across the Arkansas Valley between Boone, Olney Springs and Fowler — 22 reports of 1.75 inch or larger hail statewide, the most of any day this season.

The Sterling and northeast plains hail map — June 22, 2026

Sterling took measured 3-inch hail in town

This is the strongest verified in-town large-hail event of the 2026 season anywhere in Colorado. The hail reached the Sterling area at 4:49 PM and worked across the city for about twenty minutes — 1.75 inches measured a mile northeast, 3.00 inches measured four miles west at 4:55 PM, then 2.50 inches measured on the south side at 4:58 and 5:07 PM. Every one of those is a measurement, not an estimate. Sterling had been under eight successive severe thunderstorm warnings starting at 3:12 PM — more than 90 minutes of continuous warned lead — plus a tornado warning at 5:29 PM, and a mesonet station east of town recorded a 59 mph gust as the storm arrived.

The same line kept going. At 6:12 PM the Akron ASOS — an NWS-grade instrument — measured a 109 mph gust, with nearby mesonet stations recording 92 to 113 mph and power lines down along US-34 between Akron and Otis. By 7:19 PM a spotter north of Cope measured 3.50 inch hail, and at 7:54 PM the spotter west of Joes measured 4.00 inch stones — “Multiple 4 inch hail stones reported,” in the words of the report.

Every large-hail report — Sterling to the eastern plains

These are National Weather Service Local Storm Reports. Measured means an observer put a ruler or gauge on the stone; reported means a size category or estimate was relayed. Times are MDT.

The 2.00 inch row is 17 miles south of Kimball, Nebraska — inside far northeastern Weld County, Colorado.

The Arkansas Valley round — same day, different storm

While the northeast plains storms were organizing, a separate complex under WFO Pueblo worked the Arkansas Valley. A chaser measured 2.25 inch hail north-northeast of Olney Springs at 5:12 PM — he drove through the hail core and made the measurement — with 2.00 to 2.25 inch hail reported around Boone, the Pueblo Depot area and northwest of Fowler. Radar put Fowler itself inside the estimated 1.50 inch contour, a third of a mile from the estimated 2.00 inch core. This round was also tornado-warned: law enforcement reported a funnel cloud at Fowler at 5:10 PM and a tornado a mile west at 5:22 PM, and a chaser reported a tornado southwest of town from 5:42 to 5:47 PM.

How big was this day, statewide

Radar analysis puts roughly 1,275 square miles of Colorado under estimated 1.00 inch or larger hail on June 22, about 243 square miles under estimated 2.00 inch or larger — the season’s largest footprint — and about 30 square miles under estimated 2.75 inch or larger. Those are estimates; the measured stones in the tables above are the ground truth, and at Sterling the measured 3.00 inch stones out-ran what radar estimated over the town itself. Radar and ground agreed closely on the Joes–Cope corridor, where the estimated 2.75 inch cores straddle the spots where the 4.00 and 3.50 inch stones were measured.

Red Hawk’s Front Range service area saw a much smaller storm the same day — three reports topping out at 1.50 inches in Fountain. That event has its own report.

Why measured 3-and-4-inch hail matters

Damage scales hard with stone size. A one-inch stone falls at about 41 mph and lands with roughly 1.3 joules of energy. A 1.75 inch stone falls at about 65 mph and lands with roughly 16 joules — about thirteen times the impact. Published impact studies put the onset of functional damage near 1.00 inch for three-tab shingles, 1.25 inches for architectural shingles, and 2.00 inches for Class 4 impact-rated products. Stones of 3.00 and 4.00 inches are past the threshold for every asphalt roofing product made, and they break skylights, crack fiber-cement siding, and total pivot-irrigation panels and vehicle glass.

What to do if you were under it

1. Check from the ground, not the roof. Walking a hail-struck roof is how people get hurt.
2. Look in your gutters. Granules washing off in quantity is the most common early sign.
3. Check soft metal. Roof vents, gutters, flashing, the mailbox, AC condenser fins. Dents in soft metal date the storm.
4. Photograph what you find with your phone. Phone photos carry a timestamp. Do not edit them.
5. Get it inspected. Especially if this storm was months ago — that is exactly when bruising starts to surface.

Frequently asked questions

Red Hawk tracks every significant hail day across Colorado. See the 2026 season archive for every covered event, and our storm reports hub for how these reports are built. Before any adjuster visit, read what hail damage actually looks like on a roof and the Colorado hail claim guide, or see our hail damage service for what an inspection covers.

Storm figures are National Weather Service Local Storm Reports for Colorado on June 22, 2026, retrieved from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet archive and de-duplicated; warning times are from the NWS watch/warning archive. Times are MDT and reports are grouped by the local calendar day. Radar swath analysis by ExoVzn, an independent forensic meteorology firm, using NOAA MRMS data. Radar figures are estimates. Storm reports indicate where hail occurred; only a physical inspection establishes whether a specific roof or structure was damaged.